Posterboard is a standardized product that is used to create all types of hand-lettered and hand-drawn signs and displays, such as posters. A problem in the use of conventional posterboard is that evenly-spaced letters, and evenly-spaced lines, are virtually impossible to achieve without pre-measuring and pre-marking the posterboard with guide markings. Typically, a user will pre-mark and pre-measure a posterboard with faint pencil lines to enable even lettering and line spacing, and then the pencil lines are erased upon finishing the project. The use of pencil lines for guide markings suffers from a number of substantial drawbacks. The application of pencil lines is time consuming and requires a reasonable amount of precision not available to school children or casual users without drafting equipment. The subsequent erasure of pencil lines is often incomplete and impossible to complete so that there is no visible trace. Erasure of pencil lines often smears the lettering or drawing that has been applied. The use of pencil lines requires a high degree of pre-planning and therefore limits creativity in arrangement as the project progresses.
A number of complicated pre-marking devices are known in the art. These devices are difficult to use as well as expensive to acquire.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,378 to Libby discloses paperboard sheets wherein a grid is permanently deformed into the sheet. Libby requires specialized apparatus for scribing the sheets, and is therefore not suited to production in an economical fashion by conventional and readily available printing equipment. In addition, the permanently deformed or embossed guide marking of Libby interferes with many types of drawing and lettering media, such as pencil and crayons, producing unpredictable visual results.